Reddit reviews TP-Link 2.4GHz 24dBi Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna, N Female Connector, Weather Resistant (TL-ANT2424B)
We found 25 Reddit comments about TP-Link 2.4GHz 24dBi Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna, N Female Connector, Weather Resistant (TL-ANT2424B). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
24dBi directional operation, ideal for extraordinary long-distance outdoor directional connectionWeather proof design, suitable for all weather conditionsN Female connector, applicable in most outdoor solutionsProvides easy installation mounting kit
An Alfa AWUSO36NH USB wifi card, an [Alfa R36 802.11 b/g/N Repeater and Range Extender for AWUS036H](https://www.amazon.com/Alfa-R36-Repeater-Extender-AWUS036H/dp/B004ZF0I3U/], a TP-Link 2.4GHz 24dBi Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna, and depending on how far away it is, a TP-Link 2.4GHz 24dBi Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna, and a TRENDnet Low Loss Reverse SMA Female to N-Type Male Weatherproof Connector Cable. You'll also need a tripod mount, and a meter long pole. This setup is very directional, but if you have a clear line of site, it's perfectly doable.
There is some wrong info in previous replies to this thread. The RTL-SDR can RX plenty of satellites, it just requires a proper antenna + and possibly a LNA or hardware filter. There are several satellites in 137 MHz (weather satellites, NOAA, M2). There is also Inmarsat, Iridium and other satellites in L-band (1.5-1.6ghz) that can be found.
To start with, NOAA APT is a good option. The rtl-sdr.com link posted is a great resource.
You can build a QFH, DCA or Turnstile antenna that will work well for them. There is also the V-dipole that has been posted here before that shows good results. Another option which is cheap and easy to build is a "2m tape measure yagi". The only downside of the Yagi is you need to get outside and point it, since it is directional (think like a flash light focusing light in one direction). The other antennas listed above are omni (think of like a light bulb with no cover, emitting light in all directions).
After APT, LRPT from Meteor M2 is a good one to chase. Higher quality pictures and you can use the same antenna from APT.
Next, there are a bunch of Amateur radio satellites that operate in the 2m (~145 MHz) and 70cm (440 MHz) bands. You'll find various telemetry to decode and some have voice or APRS repeaters on them. A QFH, DCA, or Turnstile will work for these, but not as well as a purpose build antenna for 70cm. Checkout the Arrow-II split boom antenna (about $100 bucks). It is like a 2m tape measure yagi, except it also has a set of elements for 70cm. If you get a ham license ($15 bucks and a test), you can talk to people bouncing your signals off these satellites.
Next, moving up to L-band. (1.5ghz - 1.6ghz) you will find Inmarsat and Iridium and GOES satellites (1.7ghz). These require different antennas, LNAs and filters. Outernet has made a patch antenna that works for Inmarsat, and a custom filter/lna board (on amazon). I wouldn't recommend the Outernet patch unless you dont have a lot of space. A good option is a TP-Link 24dbi dish (about $50 on amazon/ebay). These work very well. Or a L-Com 1.9 Ghz antenna.
Here is a pair of the TP-link dishes I have that I use to monitor inmarsat. http://i.imgur.com/2PCk2rC.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CFATOW/
http://www.l-com.com/wireless-antenna-hyperlink-brand-19-ghz-22-dbi-parabolic-grid-antenna
The RTL-SDR can have issues getting up near the higher frequency range it supports (1.5ghz-1.7ghz), so it may be problematic. Generally the v3 from rtl-sdr.com fixes this as it has a cooling pad that helps keep the PLL locked.
Beyond frequency locking and maximum supported frequency(24mhz - 1.7ghz for the RTL) issues, the other issue you run into when working on higher frequency satellites, is the limited bandwidth of the RTL-SDR. Inmarsat this is not an issue as most signals are narrow and fit within the 2.4 MS/s sampling rate of the RTLSDR. The max freq issue can be solved with a downconverter, but if the signal is wider than 2.4 MS/s, it wont work and you'll need a better SDR (Airspy, BladeRF, USRP). The higher bit ADCs on the higher end SDRs help as well.
Just for some eye candy, here is a 40 MHz swath of Inmarsat 98W from my 1.2m dish with a USRP - http://i.imgur.com/sic1rgQ.png
Now getting to GOES. There has been folks who have tested the L-com dish linked above with another TP-link slightly extending it with success. I have a 1.2m dish setup for GOES and you can see the write up here about it: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/receiving-goes-lrit-full-disk-images-of-the-earth/
Lucas Teske has a great set of blog posts about his adventure of setting up a GOES station on his blog. He also has created the OSP (Open Satellite Project) software package that will decode the images.
http://www.teske.net.br/lucas/2016/10/goes-satellite-hunt-part-1-antenna-system/
You can also pickup Iridium satellites with a simple modified GPS antenna, LNA, filter. You can find details and many talks on this at the links below:
Iridium Pager Hacking 31c3
Iridium Hacking ... please don't sue us cccamp15
Iridium Update 32c3
Iridium Satellite Hacking - HOPE XI 2016
https://github.com/muccc/iridium-toolkit
https://github.com/muccc/gr-iridium
Next... remember the NOAA APT satellites? They also have a service that is broadcasted, HRPT that operates at 1.7 GHz, and has much higher resolution. There is also many other satellites that broadcast HRPT, will be well supported for many years to come. It's also a wider signal, and a better than rtl-sdr SDR is required (Airspy, BladeRF, USRP). Also needed is a 1-1.2m satellite dish on a tracking AZ/EL mount. I've built a complete from scratch tracking mount for another 1.2m dish I have, and the build log can be found here - http://imgur.com/a/6Lo8M Here is what the signal looks like - http://i.imgur.com/Ub4XYwh.png and here is what the images look like http://i.imgur.com/Cfw9lpH.jpg
There is also TACSATs that operate near 240-300 MHz. You need a crossed yagi antenna (search Trivec on ebay) or a "x-wing" antenna (x-wing can be built with some tape measure materials rather easily, search "diy uhf satcom antenna" ). You will hear Brazilian pirates on these satellites all the time. Here is my Trivec I use to monitor them:
http://i.imgur.com/uklQ8zH.jpg
I would be surprised if that device worked.
What you need is a directional antenna. Ideally, something you can put in your roof or outside your window. Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-ANT2409A-Directional-Antenna-connector/dp/B003CFATNS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407434530&sr=8-2
A larger antenna with a bunch of gain will work really well, if you can find a place to mount it:
http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1407434530&sr=8-3
I actually had two antennas similar to those set up at Tenside, and I got GT WiFi for about 2 years. Never had to pay for my own internet. (This wasn't stealing, I was paying my technology fees...)
Anyways, you can hook that antenna up to USB adapter (like the Alfa one linked below), or into another wifi access point and rebroadcast your own network.
This has been discussed a bit here: http://www.reddit.com/r/TinyHouses/comments/2i72er/tiny_houses_for_techie_people/
I'm currently building a tiny hacker house outside of Houston in a somewhat rural area. I work remotely as a software engineer and plan to be on the road quite a bit, so having good Internet is an important part of my design.
The way I'm solving this problem is two-fold:
-- or --
I'm not advocating this since it's a bit shady, but, if your phone can get a decent T-Mobile LTE signal, you can sign up for their unlimited plan on a jailbroken iPhone and use a couple different apps to masquerade your computer's connections through the phone's usual APN. Supposedly this bypasses your tethering quota but theoretically they could suspect something through HTTP headers if unencrypted. If connected through VPN, however, it'd be very difficult to prove the connections aren't coming from the phone itself.
Hope this helps!
For about $100 you can buy equipment that will let you connect to the internet from several miles away with clear line of sight.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CFATOW
You still need your own power source though. Generators don't cost too much either.
Maybe this Asus Q501LA-BBI5T03:
> Something else I would like but not entirely sure exists is something that will increase the range of receiving a wifi signal? A building down from where I work has a wifi signal we can use but since its kind of far we lose the signal at random times.
If your boss allows it you could hook up an external antenna to the access point and point it on your house. Something like this Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna from TP-Link.
How's the signal from this when compared to a parabolic one like this?
That's actually no problem! You don't need to actually boost the transmission, you just need a better antennae for your receiver. You can buy wifi antennae which can pick up a wifi signal from very long distances, up to about 2 miles with some tech! Here's one of them.
http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1454199864&sr=8-2&keywords=directional+wifi+antenna
If you also buy another wifi hotspot and hook it into the home network, and a second antenna, and hook the second antenna into the wifi hotspot's transmitter, and then aline both antennas dishes, you can get very very fast wifi through this method. That will also work better on days with say, rain or other atmospheric conditions that occlude signals. But it will work with just the one as well.
The process is basically easy as "Mount antenne to wall, attach antenne to USB wifi recever. Stick into usbport."
I would go for something like this: Dual Band antennas are pretty shitty https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW
If you're on a tight budget, the best solution is to run a cable.
If you want a simple set up, since you're not an advanced user, a cable is your best option.
If you want security, a cable is your best option.
You can try a directional wifi antenna. But I cannot guarantee you the same performance as a cable, not even close. Also bare in mind any obstructions, suck as trees, and walls.
This would be the other alternative, but my guess is, it's out of your budget.
What I'd do, is run some conduit from one place to the other. Get some Cat6a, run that and place a switch and/or a router on the other end. More work, better security, better connection, cheaper.
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
>We used electric heat at first but running on 15amps instead of a 30 or 50 amp power source from campground
I'm building mine for shore power, but that's a really good point. Getting 120V is easy; getting more than 18A, not so much. (If only we had 220V...)
\> We're using 12v for everything we can
I'm leaning towards this as well - even on shore power. Gutting an RV or camper is by far the cheapest option for fixtures, and efficient 120-\>12V power supplies for server use are a dime a dozen.
\> I'm going to see if I can get a USB wifi card with awesome range and see if I can hop on that.
You want a [BIG damn 2.4 ghz antenna.](https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW) In addition to boosting the signal in *both* directions (improving your card is worthwhile, but only for transmission!) it reduces noise - it can't "see" anything it's not pointing directly at. You can also build one with a soup can and a satellite dish.
Ideally you’d want something like this but you probably wouldn’t be able to get away mounting it outside if your apartment.
Something like this might do this trick though if you’ve got good line of sight.
Pretty cool. I do think that this many antennas doesn't really do much though in the stock configuration. 8 omnidirectionals is a waste.
It would be a neat device to play with if you hooked a bunch of directional antennas to it in the middle of nowhere. I played with one of these a few years ago and it was pretty crazy how far it would detect other access points. The dish is about the size of a coffee table.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003CFATOW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509992671&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=24+dbi+parabolic+antenna&dpPl=1&dpID=41hVS%2BXN3ML&ref=plSrch
Umm.. im not quite sure what you mean by "radio". It is this product ( https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW) installed in the roof. It has an outlet of ethernet cable on its back. The ethernet cable connects to an adapter thingy (inside home) in a LAN port labelled PPPOE. Then the another lan cable connects that adapter to my router (which is my current internet source). I don't know how much of it made sense.. But thanks for trying to help out!
This is the antenna I'm looking at. My range needs are on the higher side of moderate. Also, due to the nature of the public connection and the monitoring being done on it, I am unable to access the admin settings on the public router or even locate the physical box itself. So far everything I have found is either a range extender for a single laptop, or a setup requiring access to the router either physically or as an admin.
As I type this I realize my circumstances sound sketch, but I am on a military base and trying to get a wifi signal from the morale center to our lodging area.
This will probably get the HOA on your ass but this is the biggest cheapest 2.4Ghz antenna I know about. Free shipping with Prime, too.
You will definitely need a parabolic antenna:
http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW
Your only hope is to put the router in the cinderblock wall house, in a window that you can see the other house from. If you can't get a signal in the other house still, you will have to either run CAT5 cable to the other house, or get one of these and point it at the house: http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW
With the antenna you may still need to buy another repeater to put in the 2nd house, depending on the size of the 2nd house.
It's not fake at all. I install long range Wifi solutions. Last thing I did was a stable 20 mbit connection from the basement of a apartment building to the top floor. Two of these point to point.
Plus a booster on both. On each end a DIR-835 router with OpenWRT in WDS mode.. You just need to align them good enough and find a path with the least amount of interference. Yeah that's 20 mbit of internet through like 5 or 6 concrete floors.
If I would take that system and put it outside and high enough and then use lasers to get them to align with each other perfectly I could easily do 20 mbit over 40 or 50 KM. As long as the signal is line of sight. And I would probably not even need the boosters.
This type of antenna is called a yagi antenna. They are directional antennas so the signal is not spread out equally in all directions but focused in to a tight beam. You need one on each end to create a long distance wifi link. Over a longer distance the signal needs to be line of sight. With expensive enough equipment I could do 9 km with some trees in between the signal and still get 5 or 10 mbit of internet.
LOL... OK, I confess to only briefly glancing at the link when I was in a location with crap coverage. Point being that the title "How to BUILD a long distance antenna" made me think someone was actually building an antenna rather than simply parting together a system (which is what it appears is actually in the link).
That said, this is the antenna I used. The other half of my system was a garden variety 1/2 wavelength dipole POS antenna like those that come with any 2.4 GHz system. As stated previously, I was running 0.1 watt and getting 1.5 miles reliably without even really trying. I suspect I could have done 2 miles if I'd actually put some effort into aiming the antenna but I only needed about 0.75 miles for my final application so I never bothered to really push the system.
This should give you a couple more bars. https://www.amazon.com/Network-Wireless-802-11g-Adapter-AWUS036H/dp/B000WXSO76/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498670299&sr=8-2&keywords=alpha+networks+awus036h It will allow you to hook up one laptop. If you want wifi for several devices hook up the above with this device https://www.amazon.com/Alfa-R36-Repeater-Extender-AWUS036H/dp/B004ZF0I3U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1498670299&sr=8-4&keywords=alpha+networks+awus036h
With the combination you are taking your neighbors wifi boosting their signal strength and then creating your own wifi network for everyone in your house to use. I have had this set up at my lake house for several years. I us a high gain antenna like this https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1498670676&sr=8-12&keywords=high+gain+wifi+antenna
pointed across the lake (1500 feet est) at my friends house and use the above devices to create my own wifi for my house. It works for internet browsing but its not enough speed for streaming video. You may just want to start with the alpha hooked to one pc and see how that goes and what king of increase in signal and speed you get. The nice thing about all of this is since it is from Amazon any/all can be returned. All the pieces add up in price but if it gives you free internet you can justify it and the return on investment is really good considering how expensive internet would be especially for occasional use.
Yagi antennas might work. I also have one of these parabolic dish antennas: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_QZSjzb2ZD4R2R which can be coupled to this usb wifi adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035GWTKK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_64SjzbXEZ1WX8 the dish antennas are very directional though.
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW 24db gain! This would be my personal choice but for almost $300 I'd look for buildable designs, like you. If you built a long multi-element yagi and you did a good job, might might get close to that number - maybe.
You may be able to find one of these dishes on ebay. I have one I snagged from a tv station throwaway pile.
Height above ground isn't as important as line-of-sight. Wifi frequencies are affected by obstructions between antennas, so in a perfect world, standing at your antenna you should be able to see (with your eyes) their antenna. If there are obstructions, you may need to tweak your antenna location.
Best of luck!
I had a similar issue, the only broadband provider that serviced my area except satellite was a line of site provider. Problem was my house was not in line of sight of their tower. My solution was to get a pair of these. http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404936652&sr=8-1&keywords=wifi+parabolic+antenna and hook them to relevant Wi-Fi devices (in my case a wrt54G and a desktop configured as a bridge). I set a power pole I had laying around up on top of the hill and ran power to it(had some old outdoor romex laying around). System has been working for 9 years with one replacement of the router
It could be really slow, in both throughput and latency. And you may be breaking your providers TOS by using FoxFi. So if 4G is your only source of Internet connectivity, it might be a bad idea to risk loosing it.
Consider finding someone that you can connect to via wireless on 2.4 GHz that does have access to a high speed Internet connection. (reviews for this claim a distance of over 5 miles sometimes)